Securelist / Blog
Securelist / Blog
  • Adobe Incubates Flash Runtime for Firefox

    The Adobe AIR and Adobe Flash Player Incubator program updated their Flash Platform runtime beta program to version 5, delivered as Flash Player version 11.2.300.130. It includes a "sandboxed" version of the 32-bit Flash Player they are calling "Protected Mode for Mozilla Firefox on Windows 7 and Windows Vista systems". It has been over a year since Adobe discussed the Internet Explorer ActiveX Protected Mode version release on their ASSET blog, and the version running on Google Chrome was sandboxed too.

    Adobe is building on the successes that they have seen in their Adobe Reader X software. Its sandbox technology has substantially raised the bar for driving up the costs of "offensive research", resulting in a dearth of Itw exploits on Reader X. As in "none" in 2011. This trend reflects 2011 targeted attack activity that we’ve observed. 2011 APT related attacks nailed outdated versions of Adobe Flash software delivered as "authplay.dll" in Adobe Reader v8.x and v9.x and the general Flash component "NPSWF32.dll" used by older versions of Microsoft Office and other applications. Adobe X just wasn't hit. IE Protected Mode wasn't hit. Chrome sandboxed Flash wasn't hit. If there are incident handlers out there that saw a different story, please let me know.

  • Malicious ads on security websites
        Perhaps the worst possible scenario is when a bank website is hosting malicious ads: you never know what can be installed and when on your computer if you click on the ad banners. Something similar happens with security websites hosting malicious ads. They are supposed to be for security information. The people browsing such sites trust the content to be safe, but in actual fact because of the ad banners the resources may be anything but trustworthy.

  • Will Google Bouncer definitely remove all malware from the Android Market?
    Will the Bouncer be effective in addressing the malware problems with Android apps? First of all, this is a good and really necessary move Google is taking, however the solution will be only partial. Based on the public information around this service, all apps will be scanned for known malware. Basically that means a multi-scanner or something similar will be used, so the quality of malware detection will depend greatly on what AV engines Google will use to analyze apps. Not all AV engines have the same quality, so there is a possibility some malicious apps won't be detected as malicious. The second step offered by Google is emulation. It's a good approach, however it can also be cheated by anti-emulation tricks or a malicious app can be programmed to behave differently once an emulation is detected, making the app appear to be non-threatening.  So, basically the same malware tricks used to bypass Windows security can be implemented now on Android.
    Is it still a good idea to use a mobile security program for protection even with Bouncer in place? Yes, for sure it's a good idea. The situation is many people download apps not only from the official Android Market, but also from third-party sources.  Nobody knows for certain what kind of apps are out there on private market stores, run by people not affiliated with Google. Additionally as we mentioned if Google's multi-scanner won't count on all AV engines but only some of them, it's certainly good to use AV detection on your phone as a second opinion for anything that might have slipped past Google’s scanner.
    Are there ways for hackers to sneak infected apps into the store despite Bouncer? Yes and one of them is by hacking well known and trustful developers accounts. In fact I believe that will happen in the near feature. I say this because of Google says it will check all new developers account. If a developer is already known and trusted by Google, that developer account will be a prime target for cybercriminals. Also, even though we haven’t seen it happen yet, we know cybercriminals can start developing apps that work differently in specific geographic zones. For example, an app could be designed to only behave maliciously if it detects a Latin American carrier…if the same app is used by a US carrier, no malicious behavior will be detected. That's also an anti-emulation trick which can be exploited by cybercriminals in order to avoid Bouncer detection.
 
SpywareGuide Articles
Articles on Spyware, Adware, Malware and privacy in general
SpywareGuide Articles
  • DATA-THEFT WORM TARGETING GOOGLE'S ORKUT
    FaceTime Security Labs announced the discovery of a worm that steals users? banking details, usernames and passwords. The worm, known as MW.Orc, is propagating through Orkut, Google?s social networking site, as users launch an executable file disguised as a JPEG. Google has a temporary fix in place
  • The Digital Underground: Interview with RinCe
    This is Part TWO of a series of write-ups focusing on the recent threat to E-Commerce systems via potential IM (Instant Messaging) attack vectors and more besides, by way of a remotely installed administration tool and custom-built scripts, designed to find vulnerabilities in third-party payment sys
  • Property Values, Satellite Maps and Zillow
    A new service called Zillow allows you to easily access the value of your home...and your neighbors and even their neighbors. SpywareGuide articles are sponsored by FaceTime Communications, providing solutions for securing and controlling IM, P2P and Spyware Greynets.
Why It's Important To Stay Current With Antivirus Definitions PDF Print E-mail
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Submitted By: Benny Carlson

It is perfectly normal for your PC or Mac to develop faults once in a while. And talking about problems, my personal computer crashed last week, and what is even more surprising is the fact that it is not even two years since I bought the notebook, and here I am ending up with a bad system.

The way everything happened was very dramatic, one minute I was watching a martial arts movie, and the next I was seeing vertical lines all over my screen. I decided to shut it down and restart it again. This is when I got the shocker; the computer simply refused to start back up. It is rather sad, but then that is the way computers behave. I cannot really say if my notebook’s problem is a hardware failure or due to virus attack.

Regardless of which one is responsible, it is strongly recommended that you take care of your personal computer if you want to prevent problems like this. It is true that nothing can be guaranteed, but it does pay to take certain precautions. One of them is keeping the paperwork that came with your PC or Mac when you bought it, while another precautionary step is to ensure you keep up to date with free antivirus downloads.

Many people often wonder why it is necessary to stay current with antivirus downloads. The reason is very simple; every single day we see, new and more fatal virus programs are written. No one really know the identity of the person or people behind what has now come to be known as cyberspace diseases, but what we know for certain is that antivirus downloads can very effective in keeping them off.

Any personal computer that is updated with modern antivirus downloads functions like a bullet proof. Yes it is true that people are developing new and more dangerous computer viruses, there are other specialists that also work twice as hard to shut them out, and this is what happens when we take advantage of free antivirus downloads. By doing so we are arming our systems to identify troublesome viruses so that they can destroy them or shut them out before they wreck havoc.

Anyone that needs a contemporary and up to date antivirus downloads should log on to the internet and download whatever they need. In addition, most of personal computers show their users these updates on their own, and you will be notified immediately new software is available.

Please don’t take the problem of computer virus with levity as they can literally destroy your computer, and we are talking of destruction that will warrant you buying a new one. This is something I doubt you will be willing to do right now. So log on to the internet and find out more information about up to date antivirus downloads.

Published At: www.Isnare.com
Permanent Link: http://www.isnare.com/?aid=99050&ca=Computers+and+Technology
 
 

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